Apartment City

Government loves to create winners and losers.  The Chad Mayes led Assembly Republicans , the seven of them, voted to force some companies to buy “credits” to stay in business—this is a tax increase.  Then they also said they prefer government transportation by making it more expensive to drive a car—Mayes and friends voted to raise gas taxes by 63 cents a gallon.  In zoning matters, government really likes to create winners and losers. “Facing down a record number of vacancies on State Street and a citywide backlog of building permit applications , the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously this Tuesday to enact a six- month pilot program to improve and accelerate the review process for prospective commercial tenants along the downtown business corridor. Applicants for properties between Sola and Cabrillo streets, where more than 30 storefronts currently sit empty, will now be bumped to the front of the line at design review board hearings . Two members of the city’s ...

A major residential project could be on the way to Reseda, bringing 205 new apartments to the area. The six- story development is planned for 6670 North Reseda Boulevard , just a half-block from the LA River, and will replace a cluster of commercial and office buildings that now stand on the project site. Plans published last week on the Los Angeles Department of City Planning website show that the project will also include 5,932 square feet of commercial space , along with a total of 307 parking spaces for cars and 238 spots for bikes in a two-level garage. 18 of the units in the complex will be set aside for very low-income tenants. In return, the developer has asked for an increase in the project’s allowable height and density. A total of 24,188 square feet of open space will be included in the finished complex . The project is similar to another six- story development proposed right across the street in 2014. That complex, called the WaterMark, is set to include 254 units of h...

A Wigan “eyesore” has come under scrutiny as residents complain that the area is becoming a fly-tipping hotspot. A car park located at the back of the former Royal Oak pub site in Standish Lower Ground is turning into a “scrapyard” after developers were refused permission to build on the site as it is greenbelt land. Now the unused space has become the hot topic for residents and local councillors, who are “disgusted” that nothing is being done to clear the site up. Coun Mike Crosby , for Shevington and Lower Ground ward , said: “I have been on this for a while now. To say this place looks like Steptoe’s yard would be an insult to Steptoe’s yard. “It’s an utter disgrace. It needs cleaning up. We have had complaints about it. “At first that site was going to be a restaurant. I thought that would have fit in, but somewhere along the line they scrapped that. Then it was going to be a Tesco Express then that plan got scrapped. “The state of it. It used to be a car park and now its worse...

Redevelopment efforts to save an ailing Plano mall are underway as part of a planned $1 billion investment to convert the southeast Plano properties into a multi-use development with multifamily residential , retail and entertainment projects. Dreien Opportunity Partners is spearheading the project to revitalize the Collin Creek Mall , led by CEO Sam Ware. The same company purchased J.C. Penney’s campus in the booming Legacy business area earlier this year, where the Plano- based retail giant still leases office space . Ware confirmed he has acquired about half of the 100 acres he is eyeing at Collin Creek Mall , leaving him four more parcels left to purchase. The city is not part of the negotiations between property owners, said Peter Braster, director of special projects for the city. But developers could require the approval of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and Plano City Council to make way for some of the more ambitious plans, including those with multifamily re...

City Planning Commission that they reject the city's rezoning plan during a public hearing on August 23, 2017. " /> East Harlem Rezoning View Full Caption EAST HARLEM — The mayor is ignoring El Barrio residents ' input on rezoning the neighborhood, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer charged Wednesday afternoon . “Despite our clear recommendations, the administration is not taking the community’s plan seriously,” said Brewer during a public hearing on East Harlem's proposed rezoning . After a two-year process in which residents and local business owners came up with recommendations of what they'd like to see in the rezoning, city officials came up with their own plan that doesn't include those recommendations, Brewer told the City Planning Commission . Nearly 100 speakers signed up to talk during a five-hour meeting at 1 Centre St. Wednesday. To maintain some semblance of balance, commissioners took turns listening to five people in favor of ...

In the 1920s, you could live on the edge of downtown off Park or Portland Avenue S. and never need to own a car. That’s because as much as a generation earlier, Park and Portland served as anchors for a swank residential neighborhood south of 10th Street, complete with tree- lined side streets , small hotels, townhouses and high-end apartments for professionals, many of them designed by leading architects. Well into the 1940s, this part of downtown was very much a neighborhood with networks of long-term residents and nearby cultural institutions , theaters and churches, as well as shops and restaurants. Today, there’s little reason to get out of your car, aside from the new Commons park by U.S. Bank Stadium. So many of the once-grand buildings were lost in the postwar flight to suburbia. In their place was left acres of parking lots and drive-though banks. But a walkable neighborhood is worth bringing back . And that’s what BKV Group hopes to do. The Minneapolis architecture, interi...

Dhan Subedi flipped through sheets of apartment listings on Thursday, 15 days before the deadline for her four-person household to vacate Glenbrook Apartments . She’d circled and called the most affordable units in Boise. The earliest one would be available was Oct. 15, nearly a week after her deadline to leave a one-bedroom, $575-a-month apartment. Her 13-month-old son, Kaden, rolled around the floor at the feet of her mother, Mina Subedi. The families of both Dhan and her husband, Prem Subba, are Bhutanese, though Dhan was born during her family’s two-decade stay at a refugee camp in Nepal. Subba’s was one of thousands of Nepalese- speaking families evicted from the country. Located at the corner of South Curtis Road and Cassia Street, the family’s sparse Glenbrook unit is close to the Boise Airport, where Subba works, and State Street, where Subedi works at a market. It’s also close to the former Boise International Market , where the couple owned the Bhutanese and Nepali grocery...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Walden Woods condominiums could expand by 200 units in the Arcadia neighborhood . In order to complete the project, the city of Kalamazoo will need to rezone 10.1-acres at 565 S. Drake to a residential, single-dwelling district. Thursday, the Planning Commission recommended the City Commission approve rezone the land, which will contain 40-60 owner- occupied units . The wooded and undeveloped property was formerly part of a Drake's Pond Apartments project approved by the City Commission in 1987. A total of 497 units in 35 buildings was constructed on 36 acres of land, but the owners of the apartment complex sold the remaining property to American Village Development II , LLC. American Village Development built the Walden Woods condominium project to the east of the property. An expansion of the condominiums requires the portion of land bought from Drake's Pond Apartments to be rezoned.  In total, AVD plans to build 215-230 units. Jack Gesmundo, an AVD ...

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What has been achieved in 30 years of redevelopment in Cardiff Bay? Future development of Cardiff Bay needs a more coordinated approach to ensure its success, the man behind its reinvention 30 years ago has said. Lord Crickhowell has hailed the overall regeneration of the former derelict docklands as a major success. But he is fiercely opposed to the latest plans to redevelop land for flats, including a 24-story building. Three decades after he sparked plans for one of the biggest overhauls the city has seen, what has been achieved? Image caption Cardiff Bay waterfront in 1977 - derelict before regeneration Once the epicentre of Wales' booming coal and export industries, by the 1980s, Cardiff Bay had become an abandoned wasteland of derelict docks and mudflats. A victim of a dramatic fall in trade following World War Two and competition from other ports saw its decline and a plan was put in place to bring it back to lif...

RENO, Nev. (AP) — It's a journey that most people eventually take. Fifteen years ago , Anne Carte decided to leave the familiar comforts of home and family to move out on her own. For Carte, who was 20 years old at the time, moving to the Biggest Little City from San Jose, California, represented an exciting and crucial juncture in her life. "I moved to Reno to grow up and be an adult," Carte said. The year 2002 had its fair share of memorable moments. That same year, "Star Wars: Episode II" debuted in theaters, Tiger Woods won the 66th Masters Tournament and "American Idol" premiered on television. One thing Carte specifically remembers was the cost of rent. Back then, the monthly rate for Carte's first studio in Sparks was only $495. For a young person who just moved out of home and landed an entry-level job at Target, an affordable place to stay was not a luxury. It was a b...